Reporters are only mad at Facebook because it *might have* helped Trump win

Facebook has had many privacy scandals in the past, but “this one is different.” Why is it different? Because this time the data violation might have helped elect Trump.

The news media is looking for a scapegoat to dodge the blame for electing Trump. Hmm, could it have been us droning on all day every day for months about Hillary’s emails? No, it must have been Russians/Cambridge Analytica.

I’m not sure the Facebook/Cambridge Analytica story really resonates outside the Twitter echo chamber.

Facebook’s problem is a public relations problem. Reuters ran a survey this week finding trust in Facebook has declined. Facebook is trusted less than Yahoo, Microsoft, Google and Amazon. The funny thing about these companies is they all collect the same kinds of data from their users. Google has practically the same business model as Facebook, just using a Search Engine and associated apps rather than a social network (which it also tried and failed to do too). Clearly people are perfectly fine trading away their data for free services from these companies, just not Facebook.

I’m not sure this is a problem Facebook can easily fix. Facebook needs to be transparent about the data it collects and how it is used. But reporters should be more responsible when reporting on Facebook and its data collection. Facebook collects the same data that Google collects, that credit card companies collect, that cell phone carriers collect. Reporters should put it all in context.